NSPF Awards largest-ever grant.

The National Swimming Pool Foundation awarded its largest grant ever to Drs. Bruce Becker and Susan Dunlap at Washington State University for a study regarding the impact of water exercise on respiratory function, the group officially announced at the World Aquatic Health Conference in September.

"Literature supports that cardiovascular conditioning can occur and that aerobic endurance improves," he said. "But no studies exist that show a rate of change or currently demonstrate the effect of aquatic exercise on the respiratory system."

Thomas Lachocki, CEO of NSPF in Colorado Springs, Colo., said such research is key to promoting aquatics.

Roughly half of the $247,000 grant also will go toward creation of an aquatic research laboratory at WSU in Pullman, Wash. Lachocki said much of NSPF's intention in awarding such a large grant was to establish a center for continued research on other areas of aquatic health.

In fact, once the respiratory research is completed, NSPF hopes to partner with members of the spa industry to fund another WSU study exploring the benefits of immersion in the hot-water units.

"The center could be potentially huge for [the aquatics industry]," said Becker, who has been involved in various areas of aquatic therapy since 1979. "You can gain a lot of recognition as an industry with clinically applied science."

The second World Aquatic Health Conference came to a close Sept. 21. Held at the Pacific Palms Conference Resort in the City of Industry, Calif., the two-day event attracted 231 attendees from eight countries.

Experts led seminars on a wide range of topics at WAHC, including a presentation on recreational water illness by Dr. Michael J. Beach of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, based in Atlanta.